The Lync Partner Ecosystem is Ready

The Lync Partner Ecosystem is Ready

The Release Candidate for Microsoft Lync became available yesterday for customers and partners to download and try. This is a significant milestone along with the unveiling of the new name, and we are very pleased with the customer, partner, press and analyst reaction so far!

We wanted to follow up yesterday’s announcement with news from our partner eco-system. Partners across the board, from hardware, software, and services have been innovating and working on the Lync platform APIs to develop a wide range of applications and solutions that provide more choices at every level of the communications solution spectrum. These various components have been developed with ease of integration, manageability, and security in mind, so you can rely on the solution to help meet the needs of both your users and your IT staff.

In addition to yesterday's announcement, more than 30 partners are getting ready to showcase beta versions of compatible hardware, software and service products. These include:

Enhanced 911 (E911) service providers, such as 911 Enable (Connexon), and Intrado,that route emergency calls from Lync users to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) to enable compliance with U.S. regulatory requirements.

Additionally, more than 400 partners are involved in readiness activities to help customers plan, deploy, manage, and support Lync 2010 when it is generally available later in the fall.

Explore these various partner solutions or get help from one of our Systems Integrator partners, to find the right mix for your needs.To search for a qualified partner please go tohttp://pinpoint.microsoft.com.

If you are already a Microsoft UC partner, visit the updated Microsoft Lync Resource Centeron the Microsoft Partner Network to take advantage of sales, marketing and training resources.